A Freaky Fantastic Fourth!
by Caleb Jones
Summary: The Fantastic Four's holiday is ruined by a trio of villains who escape, leaving the Fantastic Four a little mixed up identitywise! Can our fearless foursome adapt to suddenly possessing each other's bodies and powers? COMPLETE!
1. Chapter 1

_**A Freaky Fantastic Fourth**_

By Caleb Jones

**CHAPTER ONE**

_"It's Clobbering Time!"_ Ben Grimm shouted out to his teammates!

It was the Fourth of July and he ought to be celebrating with his friends but instead Ben had been forced to leave the fireworks behind and confront a gang of super-powered thieves calling themselves the Telekinetic Trio.

He took the lead position, drawing any weapon fire towards his rather giant-sized target of an orange hued body. Indeed, several guards hired by the criminals to give them cover fire attempted to shoot Ben and his friends with automatic weapons, but those weapons were intended to stop the police, not someone like Grimm! Grabbing hold of a street light, Ben yanked it out of the ground as if it were just a weed in a garden, and swung it into Hugo, the strong man of the criminal gang of super villains who collectively called themselves the Telekinetic Trio.

Hugo, wanted for several murders committed during his crimes, was apparently far more limber than his bulky appearance indicated. He easily ducked under the swiftly moving concrete and metal street lamp. Ben had put so much into the swing that he was unable to stop its forward momentum. While the villain laughed at the swing and miss by Ben, he continued to follow through with the swing, turning himself around in a complete circle, and catching the overly amused criminal totally unprepared!

With a loud crash of the lamp pole hitting the strongman's relaxed telekinetic force shield, Hugo went flying into the wall of the bank he was trying to rob. His telekinetic power may have been overwhelming to most, but it was no match for the might of Ben Grimm, also known to the world as the Thing! Ben was one of the strongest beings in the world, and a founding member of the world famous Fantastic Four, a group of heroes dedicated to making the world a safer place to live in.

Hugo's unconscious body dropped to the bank floor along with several bags of stolen money.

Another one of the heroes known as the Fantastic Four, Johnny Storm, also known as the Human Torch for rather obvious reasons to anyone who saw him fully powered up, arrived on the scene, circling above the street. Johnny's flame powers surrounded his heat-immune body, propelling him though the air much like a jet engine propels a plane.

From his high vantage point, Johnny located another member of the gang attempting to escape out the back of the bank, and with his power of complete control over his fiery flames, the Human Torch surrounded the second gang-member in a cage made of fiery plasma!

In a hurry to give aid to his fellow heroes if they needed any, Johnny didn't notice the transparent telekinetic steps his foe was creating to get him over the walls of flame. Ironically, he was utilizing one of Johnny's sister Susan's best tricks to escape Johnny's flaming trap!

Johnny's sister Sue and her husband were last to arrive at the bank. Reed Richards and his beautiful blonde wife Susan continued the search for the third Telekinetic Trio member. Reed was able to stretch any part of his body for very long distances, and in any direction. He could even make himself thin enough to slip through the crack under a door or wide enough to catch a falling body like a safety net. Susan Storm Richards was able to become invisible or to reverse that power and make others invisible. She also several telekinetic powers of her own which making her a formidable match for the so-called Telekinetic Trio.

Johnny finally noticed his escaping prisoner and added a fiery roof to his impromptu plasma cell. The second member of the Trio cursed the Human torch and reluctantly walked back down his telekinetic stairway and waited for another chance to escape.

Two of the Trio had been restrained, but one more remained at large. This criminal, their leader, was often referred to as the Mind Master by his associates for his more cerebral mental abilities. Unlike his fellow Telekinetic Trio gang members, he had the ability to project and read thoughts to and from other people. He was the one who had planned the heist, reading and influencing the minds of the bank guards to determine the best time to strike.

Reed Richards stretched his arms outward, wrapping his super-elongated limbs around the criminal mastermind, as he prepared to immobilize the man in a human cocoon. Sue made her husband's limbs invisible as they had rehearsed, to give Reed a chance to surprise the Mind Master. Onlookers could see a strange sight as the thief's body appeared to be tied up as if a huge boa constrictor had wrapped itself around the man, only there was nothing visible making the compressions that surrounded the thief. Truly, it was a fantastic sight!

"I've got him Sue! You can make me visible now." Reed said to his wife.

Suddenly the blue costume worn by Reed Richards was visible once more and it was obvious that he was the cause of the Mind Master's restricted condition.

Sue smiled at her husband's reappearance. The criminals were captured and none of the Fantastic Four were hurt in the process. Maybe now they could get back to celebrating the national holiday!

Johnny and Ben brought their prisoners over to Reed and Sue, and they began to transfer the Telekinetic Trio over to the police, who had a special containment vehicle to transport dangerously super-powered criminals to equally secured jail cells.

The Mind Master may have been captured but he wasn't ready to go to jail! He had one ace up his sleeve, one move that no one knew about, one power that he had kept secret... until now. If he was to escape the Fantastic Four, then he had to use that power now! He unleashed the power of his mind and mental energies swirled around Johnny and Ben, and Reed and Sue. The four of them fell to the ground and covered their heads with their hands as if to keep the evil energy away, but physical hands were no match for the mental power of the Mind Master! The Trio was suddenly freed as Reed's elastic limbs went limp and Johnny's fiery plasma cage burned out without his attention to it to maintain it!

The police were waiting for them though so Mind Master instructed the barely conscious strong man Hugo to punch his way into a sewer system. Grabbing the few bags of money Mind Master had been carrying, the Trio made their escape underground.

No one above them heard the Mind Master as he laughed evilly at what he knew awaited the Fantastic Four when they woke up from his mental assault.

**CHAPTER TWO**

The police and paramedics did their best to make the four heroes comfortable, they appeared to be unharmed physically but efforts to make them conscious were unsuccessful. So they were taken to a nearby hospital, and a vigil began as the world waited to learn if the Fantastic Four would survive.

Sue Richards was the first to wake up.

She looked around the hospital room. She seemed shocked to see her husband unconscious in the bed next to hers. She stood up on shaky legs, uncertain of her ability to even walk, and made her way to her husband, Reed.

The nurses couldn't hear what she whispered to Reed but after a few minutes Reed Richards also awoke, with a gasp that was almost a scream. Sue whispered to him some more and he calmed down. Apparently he had been expecting to be injured as Reed kept checking his chest for signs of bullet wounds.

The Doctor called to the room noted that two of his patients had revived and appeared to be understandably distraught, but otherwise unharmed. He looked in on his other two special patients. Both were still unconscious.

The medical expert decided to wait a bit longer to see if they would also revive unharmed as the other two victims had just done. As he had no idea what caused the condition in the first place and thus had no treatment to cure it, he had little choice but to wait and pray, perhaps the toughest part of his job, he thought to himself.

Sue and Reed held each other up and made their way to the room where Johnny and Ben were still lying unconscious. Sue moved over to Ben and tried to talk to him. It had after all worked on Reed and she knew a familiar voice has been known to wake up even those in a coma on rare occasions. Reed moved over to Johnny and seemed especially distraught. He also tried talking to the young man, giving him a voice to focus on even while unconscious. None of the medical observers heard what was said to the fallen heroes but the voice therapy began to work.

Johnny was the first to awaken. He appeared to be shocked by his survival like Reed and Sue before him, but seeing the Thing down on the heavy duty bed next to his may have shocked him the most! He pulled Reed aside and talked to his orange and rocky skinned friend and team mate.

Ben Grimm finally woke up. The others tried to calm him down but he must have thought he was still in battle, putting his fist into the bed and smashing it into scrap metal. Finally gathering his wits together, Ben calmed down and the doctor was able to examine him.

Declaring the four of them fit for duty, the doctor returned to the emergency room and all too swiftly had other patients to attend to once more.

The Fantastic four made their way outside, refusing to talk to reporters and made their way back to their headquarters. There was no way they could go back to celebrating the Fourth; they had too much on their minds!

As soon as they were totally alone and no one else could overhear them, the four of them finally began talking for real, no longer masking their incredible problem for the public.

**CHAPTER THREE**

Ben Grimm moved over to the mirror, staring at his rocky features as if for the first time.

"I sure hope you can fix this Reed! My girlfriend Sally isn't going to want to go out with me as long as I look like this. She wasn't even fond of me flaming on!" He stared at his four-fingered orange hand. "Nope, she won't like this at all."

Johnny Storm put a hand on the big man-monster's shoulder. "If she dumps you, Johnny, maybe I can go out with her. After all, we know she already likes this new face of mine. And she's pretty cute! I think I'm going to enjoy being you for a while, kid!"

The Thing turned to the Human Torch "Yeah, well, don't forget that I can squash you like a bug now if you do anything that I wouldn't do, Ben."

"Not once I figure out how to work your flame power, runt!"

"HA! You're the 'runt' now, Ben!"

Reed Richards move in and separated the two.

"Boys, boys, stop fighting! It isn't helping! I know it's a strange situation but you're not the only ones who have swapped bodies you know."

"Aw, Sis, I didn't mean to upset you." The rocky skinned Thing awkwardly hugged Reed Richard's body. "It's still hard to imagine you inside that body, Sue."

"It's even weirder being inside it, Johnny. But I'll manage until reed figures out how to fix this mix-up."

The three males turned to the female member of the group and awaited a response from the brilliant man inside that body.

"Sorry, guys, I haven't come up with anything yet. I swapped bodies with Dr. Doom once but this exchange seems different somehow. I can run some tests but I think our best bet is to recapture the Mind Master and make him reverse this."

Sue's body paused for a second. "There is no way we can get him to do that until we get back to full strength. That means we have to learn how to operate these bodies and the powers that they possess."

Sue stepped in. "It's late and we are still in shock, Reed. I think we had best start practicing with our new powers tomorrow. I for one have a headache and really need to get at least a full night's sleep."

"A night's rest sounds good to me too, Sue" Johnny agreed. "It's almost midnight anyway. I'll see you guys in the morning." He headed off to his room until Ben called him back.

"Johnny! You can't sleep in your room. Your bed is flame-proof, not weight-proof. Your bed would collapse in an instant with my body in it. I guess we'll have to switch bedrooms until we straighten this out."

"I suppose so, Ben." Johnny reluctantly agreed.

"At least that won't be a problem for Reed and me." Sue said. "As husband and wife, we both sleep in the same bed. But we'll also have to wear the clothing that belongs to our body as well or else we'll all look ridiculous." She smiled inwardly at the thought of Reed in a dress.

"I can't wait to see Reed in a skirt!" Ben said, almost falling onto the floor as he guffawed loudly at the image in his mind.

Johnny had a hard time keeping a big grin off his newly rocky mug as well.

Reed was blushing furiously within his wife's curvaceous body. No way was he ever going to wear a dress!

The end of part one

To be continued -if you want me to do so,please leave a review.


	2. Chapter 2

Real life problems have kept me rather busy but I finally had a chance to finish and edit the rough draft for part two of the story.

For those who have forgotten, the fantastic Four were called into action and one of the villains who fought them used his mental powers to exchange their bodies.

Now Reed is Sue and Sue has become her husband Reed! And Johnny is Ben Grimm, the Thing, and Ben possesses Johnny's handsome face and body!

And now the story continues...

_**A Freaky Fantastic Fourth**_

Written and edited by Caleb Jones

**_PART TWO_ – Settling in to their new surroundings...**

**Prologue**

After the swap, he had been too busy with the after effects of the battle, cooperating with the police, while trying to convince the others that acknowledging the changes would be a weakness their enemies could not resist. They had to pretend to be who they looked like.

And when they got home to the Baxter building, no one was in a mood to talk about the changes. The battle had taken a toll on all of them both physically and mentally and a quick meal and sleep was the only thing on their agenda until the next morning.

It was late by the time the four got home. Reed made some quick preliminary brain scans but confirmed to the others that he would indeed need more time to attempt a reversal. So they locked up the lab for the night and ate a dinner the computerized kitchen had prepared for them.

There was little talk. It was almost too strange to talk to someone, hearing the wrong voice when you spoke, and knowing that when they looked at you they saw someone other than the real you, even if that other person was a 'fantastic' friend.

Everyone was tired, and they retired soon after for the evening.

**4 JOHNNY STORM**

Johnny Storm couldn't fall asleep.

Because of a crazy body exchange, he now occupied the body of his best friend and second-best friendly antagonist, (Spider-Man being number one, of course!)

Johnny Storm was now The Thing.

He didn't realize how much Ben put with since the cosmic rays blasted them and they had become the Fantastic Four. Johnny was simply lying in bed and yet everything felt odd. Simply moving an arm or stretching out a muscle moved the massive, rocky skin of his borrowed form, which in turn created an ever-so-slight grinding sound against another part of the same skin he now possessed.

Adding to Johnny's discomfort, Ben's bed had been specially built for his powerful and rough body, so Johnny had to switch bedrooms for the duration.

At least it kept his mind off his looks. His girlfriend wasn't going to like it when she learned of his new 'skin condition'.

There was also the unspoken fear that Reed would be unable to swap them all back into their proper bodies, and he would be forever trapped as "The Thing" for the rest of his life. Talk about a never-ending nightmare...

No wonder that Johnny couldn't get a good night's sleep...

**4 BENJAMIN GRIMM**

Ben Grimm couldn't fall asleep.

Johnny's bedroom was quiet.

Very quiet...

It was too damn quiet!

Ben was so used to background noises created by his rocky body that they had almost become a siren song for sleep every night. But Johnny's body was not only way too small, but it was as silent as a submarine running deep during World War Two to avoid the enemy.

He would have considered selling his soul to regain his lost humanity, but there was only one problem with losing his craggy granite-like physique through a body swap. He might look human again, and the blonde Johnny Storm was a handsome young man, but the face in the mirror didn't look much like Ben Grimm anymore!

He wanted to pull a practical joke on the young man reflected in the mirror, but the joke was on Ben. The man in the mirror was HIM!

On the other hand, for Ben, the thought of Johnny looking in a mirror and seeing Ben's rocky orange skin for a while was not just the best prank of all time, it was... priceless!

All in all, though Ben figured that things could be worse. BEING the Thing was worse than being a flesh and blood human again, and Ben didn't have to look into a mirror until the morning.

Ben began to relax and finally fell asleep...

**4 SUSAN STORM-RICHARDS**

How could Sue Richards possibly fall asleep?

Normally, she had no trouble sleeping. But the situation was hardly normal. SHE wasn't normal! She had a hairy, flat chest. When she spoke her voice was deep and masculine. Her hairy male legs needed shaving.

Her body was on the wrong side of the bed, and she didn't occupy it. She was now a man, her husband! And her husband was the woman in their bed now.

It was so odd being a man, even if that man was her husband. She knew every inch of Reed's body intimately, but occupying his masculine body was something new and strange, scary yet exciting! Thinking about Reed's body made Sue feel something grow larger on her lower body. It was a foreign feeling, undeniably masculine, and not something she was ready to explore.

Not yet.

She loved Reed and his body with all her heart but Sue wanted to lie next to Reed, not BE him... This was taking equality for the sexes to a ridiculous extreme.

It was a bit scary to realize that if they were unable to reverse the mind exchanges, she might never live life as a woman again. That brought her thoughts back to her new body, and its unwanted growth.

How did guys get rid of these unwanted... feelings? She considered a cold shower, but the thought of seeing her new body nude just made things worse. An old boyfriend once told her he had to think of boring things, like math problems.

Of course, mathematics might just excite her husband's borrowed body further.

Reed often became obsessed with a good math equation, but Sue rationalized that her feminine thoughts were the trigger for the body, and she found math rather boring and dull. So she began reciting multiplication tables in her mind.

1x12...

By the time she got to 7x10, Sue Storm was falling asleep...

**4 REED RICHARDS**

Reed Richards couldn't fall asleep.

How could he possibly sleep? He loved his wife's body, and now it was closer than ever before to him. His female body was just a touch too close for comfort, Reed thought, as he tried to sleep on his stomach. His borrowed breasts objected to being flattened against the mattress. Reed turned around again and stared at the ceiling... He yawned, but sleep refused to pay him a visit.

Perhaps counting the things he loved about Sue would put him in a mood to sleep.

There were so many things he loved about Sue, like her vibrant spirit and 'never say never' attitude.

He loved her mind. She was more practical than he. There had been many times when a problem's solution eluded Reed, but Sue found the answer, usually by bypassing standard logic and thinking outside of the box.

He loved her trim, slender waist.

He loved her bountiful breasts, neither too big nor too small. Perfection. But now they were on his chest and they moved slightly with his every breath. It was rather distracting...

He loved her long blonde hair. He brushed some errant blonde strands away from his face and felt his soft, smooth cheeks. More hair fell into his face. It had happened quite often since the body switching. Reed had never had long hair before and it was proving to be rather an annoyance.

What else? He also loved her perfume. It gently wafted about his body as a gentle reminder that he was now a beautiful, and fragrant, female. That was a thought that could keep him wide awake all night.

Reed was made all too aware of all those physical things simply by taking a deep breath. If only he didn't have to take a breath, then he might get some needed rest tonight. But not breathing was unfortunately also not a feasible option.

A simple act like breathing had become a novel experience for Reed. The movement of his lungs caused his curvaceous chest to expand and contract. And each movement of his chest caused his new breasts to move ever so slightly. Such movement might go unnoticed by Sue, having lived in her body for her entire life, but to the current, male oriented resident those otherwise ordinary sensations which now surrounded him were rather intoxicating.

The key phrase in that line of thought was 'surrounded him'. Much in the same way, Sue's very feminine body now surrounded Reed's masculine mind! Reed truly loved his wife and both had vowed to share everything in their marriage, but that had certainly taken on unexpected new meaning for them today!

This body-switch between the four of them was – and there really was no better word for it – 'Fantastic'! It offered Reed an amazing opportunity to study identity, sexuality, and gender differences from new perspectives as well as many under-explored aspects of biology and the mind-body connection.

The problem was that the exchange wasn't intentional, and none of them had volunteered to make the identity swaps.

His first priority had to be to reverse the exchange. The only question was how to do it.

It was a long time before Reed fell asleep, and a few all too short hours later the alarm clock rang.

The end of Part Two.

To be continued...


	3. Chapter 3

Sorry for the delay but a death in my family put this series on hold until now.

Previously...

The Fantastic Four were called into action once again!

While fighting their latest foes, one of the 'Fourth of July' villains opposing them used strange mental powerswhich oddlyexchanged their minds and bodies.

Now Reed has Sue's beautiful face and figure!

Sue Storm has become her lanky and quite elastic husband Reed!

Johnny Storm appears to be Ben Grimm, the brutish Thing to all who see him.

Meanwhile, Ben Grimm now possesses Johnny's handsome face and body!

Adapting to new and very different bodies hasn't been easy for any of the heroes but they do their best... because that is what they do!

And now the story continues...

**A Freaky Fantastic Fourth!**

_Written and edited by Caleb Jones_

****

****

**_PART THREE_... **

**Imitation is NOT the sincerest form of flattery...**

Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm were working out in the Fantastic Four's gymnasium. Ben was instructing Johnny in some of the ways Johnny could use Ben's temporarily relocated strength of the Thing in battle. Johnny had already destroyed several pieces of equipment merely by forgetting he now weighed over three times his former weight and could no longer use the equipment he regularly used to maintain his normally slim physique. For now he had to learn to contend with his current body with its massive, super-strong muscles.

After Johnny destroyed a stationary bicycle and a treadmill, Ben finally stopped laughing at Johnny and pointed him in the direction of the specially designed and engineered, super-reinforced equipment Reed had installed years ago.

A bit annoyed by Ben's laughter, Johnny asked Ben to show him how to use the equipment. Johnny was unable to contain his own laughter as Ben attempted to demonstrate the specially built rowing machine and was unable to move the reinforced oars by even an inch. Ben tried to move it again and again until he finally remembered that his new body wasn't any stronger than an average male who worked out regularly – on regular gym equipment. By then, Johnny was nearly busting a gut with laughter.

"So ya think dat's funny, wise-guy! Why I ought to clobber ya!"

Ben pulled back his mighty right arm to knock some sense into the kid, stopping at the last second when he remembered that his arm was now no stronger than an ordinary human and wouldn't even put a dent in Johnny's currently much denser skin. The frustration at his loss of his former strength was almost enough to make him want his orange physique back.

Almost...

Ben was distracted at that moment as a tall, sultry and slender brunette woman in a Fantastic Four costume walked past them!

"Yowza! Who's dat dame!" Ben said to Johnny, as they watched her pass by towards Reed's laboratory.

"That sexy babe, Ben? I don't know but she's hot stuff and if there's anybody who knows hot stuff, it's me! Does she know Reed? How did she get into one of Sue' FF outfits?" Johnny asked his teammate.

"More importantly, Johnny, does Sue know that sexy lady is here?" Ben asked.

The lady in question stopped in her tracks, turned around, smiled a very big smile and answered Ben.

"Oh, I think she knows, Ben!"

"In fact, you BOTH know me, and you know me quite well!"

Ben and Johnny tense up, expecting anything. The woman might even be one of their foes in disguise, attacking them while their body-swapped condition made them less able to fight.

She was indeed cleverly disguised!

But instead of attacking, the woman seemed to blur and stretch in every direction. Her sexy curves flattened out and her long hair seemed to shrink back into her head. A suspiciously masculine bulge started to appear in the groin area, and suddenly the beautiful brunette woman had turned into Reed Richards!

Or rather, she was Sue Richards, temporarily occupying her husband's all too male body!

"I think I'm going to be sick!" Ben said with both a bit of levity as well as sincerity. The transformation had been a total surprise and a bit of a shock. Both of the men had been more than a little interested in the attractive woman until her incredible transformation.

"Sorry to surprise you boys, but I miss being female, and thanks to Reed's pliable body I realized I can still be one, at least on the surface if not the interior.

Johnny shivered! He had actually considering asking out the woman, but she was really his brother-in-law Reed. AND his sister! Realizing Reed wasn't actually inside that body didn't make the shock any easier. Quite the opposite! He had nearly asked his own sister for a date. He wondered if Ben's orange hued body could blush.

"You're lucky you're not really a man, Suzie." Ben said. "If you really was Reed, I'd a pulverized ya for pulling that kind of stunt."

Sue laughed at them. 'Their reactions were priceless!' she thought to herself. 'If she could fool these two, two people who knew her much better than anyone else in the rest of the world, then she could fool anyone! Except for Reed, of course. He had better be working on getting them their proper bodies back!'

Sue decided to check in on her husband's progress. She walked into his laboratory and stared in shock. Her husband was back in his male body again, and yet she still occupied Reed's body. She looked down to check. No breasts. She was still a man. So how had Reed become himself again if she still occupied his body? And what had he done with her body?

Reed was on the phone, assuring the leader of the Avengers that he would call upon them for help if they needed it to capture the 'Fourth of July Villains' as the press and nicknamed them. Then he said goodbye and shut off the monitor.

Reed turned around and smiled at his mirror image. "Hello Susan! I'm glad you are here. Give me a second to change back into you."

Reed threw a switch and his male body shimmered and vanished. For a second the area he had occupied was empty and then her familiar female body reappeared in Reed's place.

Seeing the surprised look on his former face, Reed began to explain.

I saw you preparing your own masquerade on the security monitors, Sue, and I realized I could do something similar myself. It was a simple matter to create a solid light hologram of my normal self and program it to mimic my actions and modify my voice to more masculine tones, and appear to be my usual self to anyone in the immediate area. I also directed the program it to let me be able to walk right into the hologram and direct it from within, triggered after I utilized your power of invisibility to create a neutral visual space for the 3D hologram and myself to co-exist."

"I should have guessed as much..." Sue said, stretching out a manly arm and placing her hand on her husband's slim feminine waist.

"It worked well enough to fool Captain America, Sue. It should also fool our latest foes should the need arise and give us an unexpected edge they won't be prepared for. Once we get them to switch us back, I can build a permanent, more portable device and you can use it as another ability to add to your powers if you like.'

"It sounds good, Reed! I could kiss you!"

She started to approach her husband but it was not easy for either to consider kissing their own body. The solution came to the couple at the same moment. Sue ran out to their room for a minute and came back in with a blonde wig she used occasionally in public. She used her borrowed powers to stretch and morph her body back into the beautiful brunette form she had worn earlier. Putting on the blonde wig, she appeared to be her old self again, or at least an excellent imitation of herself!

Meanwhile, Reed turned on the solid light hologram again, turned invisible and stepped into the image of his former body, looking exactly like his handsome manly self once again despite his currently female physique.

After a minute static charge as they held heal each other's hand the two kissed for the first time since the body switch. It wasn't a perfect solution but it would suffice for now!

Johnny and Ben walked into the lab and saw the two kissing.

"Hey, you must have found a way to swap back!" Johnny exclaimed!"Does this mean that me and Ben switch back now too?"

Surprised by her teammates intrusion, Sue lost control of her reshaped body and once again became Reed. Reed now appeared to be kissing... REED!

Ben and Johnny were shocked! Reed quickly pulled away and shut down the hologram.

Realizing what Reed and Sue were up to, Ben and Johnny both began to laugh. Reed and Sue joined in, Sue mugging for the others as an effeminate Reed with long blonde hair before pulling off the wig. It really was rather funny they realized, and they really needed to laugh a little to get them through this confusing, literally life-altering exchange.

When the laughs finally subsided, the four friends sat down and began to formulate their plan to trick the so-called 'Fourth of July' Villains into reversing the fantastic body-swaps they had undergone, and putting the villains behind bars where they belonged for good!

The end of Part Three.

I plan to wrap this up in the final (4th) chapter of the story!

Inspire me, people.

Leave a review!


	4. Chapter 4 the fantastic finale!

_**(The Fantastic Four are owned by Marvel Comics.) **_

**_(The 'Fourth Of July' villains (a.k.a. _the Telekinetic Trio)_are created and owned by the author.) _**

_**A Freaky Fantastic Fourth**_

_**A Fantastic Four adventure told in four parts!**_

**Written, Directed and Edited by Caleb Jones**

**Part Four**

**The Fantastic Finale!**

_**Previously, in Freaky Fantastic Four...**_

_**The Fantastic Four were called into action once again!**_

_**While fighting their latest foes, one of the 'Fourth of July' villains who opposed them used strange mental powers to exchange their bodies. **_

_**Now Reed has Sue's beautiful feminine face and figure! And Sue Storm has become her lanky and quite elastic husband Reed! **_

_**Johnny Storm appears to be Ben Grimm, the Thing to all who see him. Meanwhile, Ben Grimm now possesses Johnny's handsome face and fiery body! **_

_**Adapting to new and very different bodies hasn't been easy.**_

_**And now their story concludes...**_

The four friends and teammates quickly discarded a plan of Johnny's to trick their old foe Doctor Doom to use his mind-swapping technique to better results than the last time Doom used it, taking the place of Reed Richards by stealing his body!

As Sue pointed out, there was no way to make sure that Doom would make any swaps, or that they would just wind up in still another body even if he did. Unfortunately, Reed had never developed a defense against Doom's mind-switch abilities, as they seemed to involve metaphysical aspects which Reed was unable to reconcile with the laws of the universe as he understood them.

A quick check found the magical and metaphysical expert Doctor Strange unavailable in another dimension according to info from his assistant Wong. And Professor X (and his world renown telepathic abilities) was in outer space with the X-men. So their only option remained the original method used on them as their best chance to swap back.

After a strategy meeting, it was decided to draw the villainous Telekinetic Trio out of hiding and convince their leader Mind Master to repeat, and therefore undo his prior actions. Several potential ways to trick or manipulate such a reversal of their body exchanges were acted out and rehearsed for practice. If an opportunity for a reversal presented itself, the Fantastic Four would be ready to take advantage of it.

The plan they finalized was to take their current stance that to everyone else all was well, they were who they were supposed to be, and take that impression to the public. It meant getting out of their headquarters, get out among the people of New York, and pretend to be each other well enough to convince the Mind Master his attack had either failed or worn off.

There was nothing like the stench of failure to make a villain fall into a trap!

**4 JOHNNY STORM!**

Johnny took Ben's advice and made an appearance as the Thing at a charity fund raiser in Central Park. He had worked with Ben Grimm long enough to accurately imitate Ben's tough guy way of speaking. It was tough ignoring the beautiful blonde reporter at the event. Then he realized that Ben might not be as smooth as he, Johnny, was with the ladies, but Ben wasn't one to shy away from them either!

Soon, Johnny had Deanna, the reporter listening intently to his every word, and he made sure she would include the key phrases Reed had given him to publicize to get the Trio back in action again.

**4 REED RICHARDS!**

Reed had hoped to field test his new invention to appear to be himself again, but it wasn't ready for the field just yet as it currently weighed 500 pounds. It might be miniaturized in time for the final battle, however.

At the moment, however, he was still 'trapped' in the body of his beautiful blonde wife and had to convince his foes their mind swap had failed. Sue had suggested a sure-fire way to convince the public that she was in control of her own life. There was something Reed Richards would normally never do!

Sue smiled. It was time for a shopping spree!

So Reed Richards made a very public appearance in the local mall wearing Sue's best clothes, trying on many outfits, and generously increasing his wife's already sizable clothes closet!

It actually went quite well, giving him a rare chance to pick out some clothing he enjoyed seeing Sue wear. He even stopped by Victoria's Secret to purchase a little something for the night after they were back to normal. It was the only time he had ever felt comfortable choosing sexy underwear for his wife for a gift. Of course, to the other customers and salespeople, Reed knew they would be seeing a woman shopping.

The only problem he had was in the ladies changing rooms. Reed, being an honest married man, had respectfully decided to utilize his new invisibility powers to make any woman he saw in her underwear vanish before his eyes. The only near-naked woman he wanted to see was himself in his wife's body!

More than once while changing clothes, Reed timed the end of the invisibility wrong and heard a feminine gasp or scream as one of the temporarily invisible woman in question stared into her mirror and saw no reflection of herself in a vacant changing stall!

**4 SUSAN STORM-RICHARDS!**

Susan Storm-Richard's mission was to make the world and, especially a certain trio of villains, believe that Reed Richards was still the occupant of the body she currently possessed. It was one thing to convince Ben and Johnny that she was herself. Reed's elastic shape-shifting powers made that act rather convincing, but acting like her husband - even while possessing his body to make should be an illusion an unwanted physical reality – would take all of her acting abilities.

And to be honest with herself, though she had dabbled in acting before joining the Fantastic Four, Sue knew she was no Katherine Hepburn. Heck, she wasn't even a Jessica Alba when it came to acting. But she DID know her husband Reed better than anyone else in the whole world! So she knew she could pull it off!

Reed had scheduled a lecture to the assembled United Nations. What better way to convince the villains Reed still occupied Reed Richards body than to give that lecture herself? Susan might not be a super-genius like Reed, but she had a near perfect memory and easily memorized the very technical lecture script.

She just hoped she could be as boring to the audience as Reed usually managed to be during such lectures...

**4BENJAMIN GRIMM!**

Ben had the easiest task of the four. Pretending to be his hotshot, flamboyant younger teammate would be simplicity itself! All he had to do was ogle all the pretty girls and try to get them all to go out on a date with him, that is, with Johnny Storm, AKE 'gods gift to women'. (As Johnny himself often claimed, Ben thought, with an ironic smile.)

It was a tough job, but even in the wrong body Ben Grimm was still man enough to tackle the task! And as a former college star football player, he knew how to tackle both other players on the field as well as the lovely ladies off the field.

Johnny often haunted the latest hot spot in town, 'the Spot' So Ben entered the Spot as Johnny. Music was throbbing, lights were flashing, and the place was packed with hot sexy bodies. Ben was immediately surrounded by many beautiful women.

"Well, helloooo Ladies!" Ben said to his curvaceous new friends... not forgetting to give a news photographer a shot good enough to make the celebrity page in the newspaper.

It was a tough job but someone had to do it, Ben figured...

**4 The Lure...**

Reed had sent messages to all the media the day before to support their publicity blitz, claiming that the Fantastic Four had broken up the 4th of July gang, and sent them running away like the incompetent rats they were. Ben had wanted to add a few stronger phrases, but the media policy was to not repeat those kind of words for the public.

The seeds of a meeting between the two teams were sown. A challenge was issued, and opportunity was presented. But would they take root...

All went exactly as planned! Soon after the F.F.'s publicity blitz began, the entertainment and news media (also alerted in advance, of course) began reporting on the social activities of the Fantastic Four. And soon after those reports hit the TV and Internet, the FF headquarters computers had recorded activity down by the waterfront of a highly illegal nature. The police were on top of it as well, but with super powered villains capable of massive damage, support was urgently requested from the Fantastic Four.

As Sherlock Holmes might say, the game was afoot!

The fiery '4' sky-signal to alert the FF to gather together to confront great danger was launched from their HQ, and automated cell phone calls were made to the four members of the Fantastic Four warning them of the Telekinetic Trio's illegal activities.

Johnny, Ben, Sue and Reed each excused themselves from their current body's activities. Reed rescheduled the hair styling Sue requested he get at the hair salon for another day, with high hopes his wife would be herself once again by then.

Sue ended her speech early after someone came in with the news that the Fantastic Four signal was flaring bright in the sky, grateful that she wouldn't have to answer all questions as Reed usually did.

Ben left the party with some understandable reluctance, as he was surrounded by half a dozen women doing their best to add Johnny Storm to their list of accomplishments. The ladies being unaware that Ben Grimm was inside the handsome body they desired kept it from being a great day for Ben, but it still was an excellent experience for the normally rock-skinned Thing.

**4 The Battle Begins...**

Ben Grimm arrived first, setting up a flaming perimeter around the crooks activities with his borrowed flame powers. He kept it small enough for Reed to easily go above and over it with one of Sue's force field projections while Sue could stretch her way over it. And it was at a low enough temperature for Johnny to walk through it without any damage to his currently rocky skin.

The Telekinetic Trio were still unaware of Ben's flaming barrier as they were too involve with looting the 8th National Bank to notice it. As Ben expected, Reed, Sue, and Johnny had no trouble catching up to him and the Fantastic Four were ready to 'take out the trash' as Ben so eloquently phrased it.

Following Reed's directions, they split up into two groups on either side of the bank, and all four called out for the Trio to surrender.

Naturally, the Trio refused, and began to attack the four heroes.

The strong man of their evil group took on Ben and Johnny, dodging Ben's fireballs with relative ease, and then ripping out a monument sign for a local business and slamming it over the head of the Thing. Johnny almost let out a scream as he saw the large sign coming down on him, unable to blast it with his fire powers, but he remembered at the last second that he now possessed the super tough skin of the Thing and thrust his hands upward, shattering the sign into smaller fragments around him. Unharmed, Johnny let out an exuberant shout of glee!

"Take that, you jerk!"

'OK, so it wasn't quite what Ben would have said,' he thought, but it still got the message across to Johnny's opponent.

While Ben and Johnny were fighting one foe, Reed and Sue took out the second member of the Trio, who possessed powers similar to Sue's force fields, with ease, sneaking up on him unaware as he tried to exit a side door of the bank and knocking him out cold before he could utilize his power.

The third member of the Telekinetic Trio, and the one most important to the FF, the only one who could put them back into the bodies they wanted to reside in again, was letting his associates do the battling while he tried to sneak away with several bags filled with money. But he hadn't counted on Ben and Johnny's swift defeat of their strong man. Looking behind him for pursuit, he bumped into the rocky chest of the Thing instead, the flaming Human Torch floating right behind them.

Perfect targets for his abilities! His cruel, base instinct was to use his power and disable his enemies by shifting their minds around which he did with great pleasure, and leaving his enemies confused and shocked.

This time, Ben and Johnny were expecting such an attack and remained conscious. But, as planned before the battle began, they faked being knocked out so the Mind Master would feel secure. It worked. The villain ran away with his spoils only to run into an invisible force field wall, much like a bird flying into a glass window.

Seeing the stern faces of the married half of the fantastic four in his way, he once again instinctively resorted to the same tactic that had just taken out the other two powerful members of the super group, by switching their minds!

Reed and Sue realized they were once again back to normal! Not knowing if their teammates had already encountered the foe, they also pretended to be incapacitated to let his enemy encounter the others...

Ben and Johnny sprinted after the villain. Seeing Sue and Reed down, they ran over to their friends. Reed gave a prearranged signal to Ben and Johnny and they gave him the signal back. They realized their plan had worked, and they were all back in the bodies they belonged in!

Now all they had to do was to take the final member down without risking him switching them all around yet again.

With Sue firmly back in possession of her gloriously feminine body once more, the answer was simplicity itself. The mentally powerful villain could not swap bodies without making eye contact with his victims. In full command of her fantastic abilities once again, Sue reached out with her mind and she made all four of the Fantastic Four...

_---invisible---_

Maintaining total silence, the Four then simply walked up to the Mind Master in a prearranged pattern (as her three male partners could not see each other while all four were invisible), and they distracted him by tossing invisible pebbles and small stones around his location.

Meanwhile, Reed stretched out an invisible fist and slugged the criminal into a rather painful state of unconsciousness.

**A 4-gone Conclusion...**

Sue shut down her power and the four heroes 'materialized' around the downed body of the Mind Master.

"Well done, Sue!" Reed congratulated his wife.

"Well, you were the one who knocked him out like a prizefighter, dear."

"Yeah, nice KO there, Stretch!" Ben added, slamming a rocky fist into his other hands palm for effect.

Johnny summoned the police, who used a special mental dampener Reed had invented to secure the mentally powerful criminals for transport to jail.

After they returned home, news of the arrest hit the news media. Reports of the unusual power of the leader of the Trio leaked out and dozens of victims came forth who had been switched into other bodies during the Terrible Trio's prior robberies.

Some had reported their mind exchanges to the police weeks or even months earlier and had been dismissed as kooks, while other expected to receive such a reaction from the authorities and had reluctantly attempted to continue their lives in their new and unfamiliar bodies.

All were eventually returned to their proper bodies, with the exception of a few dozen who had mutually agreed to remain in their current bodies. The switched lives of one couple, a husband and wife, later became the subject of a trilogy of novels and an Emmy winning HBO series.

The Terrible Trio were eventually tried and convicted for their crimes, and are currently serving 25 years to life sentences in maximum security prisons.

And that, as Ben Grimm might say, is the ever-lovin' end of this story!

The Fine Print...

Marvel Comics owns the Fantastic four concepts and characters in this story.

The author, Caleb Jones, owns the copyright to the Telekinetic Trio characters and names, and the rest of the story.

This story is not to be distributed or sold without permission of the author.)


End file.
